Dynamics of Thalamic Cell Population Activity during Sleep |
Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation |
Sleep and Synaptic Plasticity |
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The ventral and dorsal thalamus are the pacemakers of the spindle oscillation, but the mechanisms by which ensembles of thalamic cells contribute to the cycle-to-cycle dynamics of spindles are unclear. We are interested in characterizing the coordinated activity of thalamic cell populations in the dorsal and ventral thalamus to understand their contribution to the integration and generalization of memories. |
The coupled oscillations that characterize NREM sleep are thought to facilitate the integration and generalization of newly acquired information into neocortical networks.
Flexible representations can accommodate noise and transformations in sensory input, encode statistical priors of features, and allow inference beyond experienced examples. We are investigating the role of the thalamus and sleep in cognitive flexibility. |
We are interested in establishing the synaptic changes that occur in thalamic networks during sleep-dependent memory consolidation.
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We rely heavily on extracellular recordings in behaving animals to track unit activity and local field potentials from limbic thalamic networks in order to understand how the dynamics of their activity correlates with memory in different behavioral states. Additional experimental approaches include optogenetics and modelling.
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Electrode lesions in fixed brain sections mark the location of a subset of the tetrodes used for multi-site recording (mPFC -left-, midline thalamus -middle-, CA1 cell layer -right-; from Varela & Wilson, 2020). |
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Units (left) and LFP recordings from mPFC; LFP and spike rasters shown during NREM sleep and transition to wakefulness (from Varela & Wilson, 2020).
Retrogradely labeled cells in the thalamic nucleus reunies following CTB-AF488 injection in CA1 (green) and CTB-AF594 in mPFC (red; from Varela et al., 2014).
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Summary of neuromodulatory regions projecting to the thalamus, color-coded for the neurotransmitter in their terminals (from Varela, 2014).
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